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DIDO (18) Corvette Built in 1836, Pembroke.
Sold in 1903.

  • 1836 Lewis DAVIES, 10/1836, Mediterranean.
  • 1842 Hon. Henry KEPPEL, 08/1841. She was commissioned at Sheerness on 4 September 1841 while lying in a covered dock, masts out, no copper or rudder and 9 feet of water in the hold. Her people, as they arrived, were accommodated first in the VENGEUR hulk and then in the SHANNON.
    DIDO was inspected by the Board of Admiralty on 25 November and on 1 December she hauled out of the basin. Eight days later DIDO had to shelter from a gale under Dungerness with some 300 merchant vessels. The weather did not moderate until the 14th. when the whole fleet got under way. A collier was taken aback and collided with DIDO taking off her own stern, so Capt. KEPPEL had to send men on board to secure a tarpaulin over the rotten wood and escort the vessel into Folkestone. Plymouth was reached on Christmas Day.
  • While they were off Falmouth on 31 January 1842 a young man, John CONNELL, died of smallpox so half the ship was placed in quarantine. This was not lifted until they reached Simon's Bay on the evening of 21 March.
  • They made Christmas Island on 24 April and Java Head two days later. The purser, J. C. BULMAN, died as they ran through the Sundra strait and he was buried at sea before they reached Singapore on the afternoon of 7 May.
  • DIDO sailed for Hong Kong on 11 May, arriving there on the 30th. Five days later she and SERPENT sailed for Chusan with a convoy of transports. They arrived on the 14th., too late for the capture of Woosung, but Capt. KEPPEL did land a party to assist in the destruction of the forts and, on the 19th., he took part in the landings to attack the forts at Shanghai.
  • DIDO was one of the great fleet of 73 men-of-war and transports which made a slow passage up the Yang-tse-Kiang during the middle of July to reach and capture Chiang Kiang-Fu on the 19th. Nanking was invested on the 27th. and DIDO's boats were employed at night searching junks lying up in creeks to see that they did not contain soldiers. On 30 July the smaller vessels, including CHILDERS, were put under Capt. KEPPEL's command.
    Faced with overwhelming force the Chinese sued for peace and a treaty was approved at the end of August.
    CHILDERS arrived to relieve DIDO on 14 September and she started back down river with eighty on the sick list.
    On the 15th., with the sick list now standing at ninety-seven, DIDO ran ashore and stuck fast.
    Two junks were seized to lighten ship and it was not until the following afternoon, with the last gun out, that she could be kedged off. Woosung was reached on 24 September and Chusan on 11 October.
  • On 18 October DIDO sailed for Hong Kong with a convoy of transports and arrived on 23 November.
    Rear Ad. Sir Thomas COCHRANE inspected her on 6 December. Yards were manned and he watched firing practice and various sailing evolutions. She sailed with a convoy for Singapore on 20 December in company with ENDYMION, WOLVERINE and the E. I.Co's steamer QUEEN. DIDO arrived with her part of the convoy on 30 December, one day ahead of ENDYMION. They continued through the straits to Penang with 19 transports.
  • Capt. KEPPEL became S. N.O. Straits Settlements.
    On 7 March 1843 two Malay boats committed an atrocious act of piracy on a Cochin China junk within sight of the anchorage at Singapore. DIDO sailed the following day but although 15 of their boats were captured at Pulo Sabu, the pirates had vanished into the jungle. In response to more piracy and murder DIDO's pinnace was sent off on a fruitless cruise on 2 April. It was agreed with Rajah Brooke that the only way was to strike at the pirate strongholds in Borneo.
  • DIDO anchored off the mouth of the Sambas river in Borneo on 6 May and the boats were sent off to examine the creeks and islands. Lieut. Wilmot HORTON with Messrs W. L. PARTRIDGE, mate, D'AETH and JENKINS, midshipmen, and the Rajah to act as guide and interpreter, were sent off in the pinnace and two cutters with a week's provisions to visit the island of Murrundum and rejoin DIDO at Sarawak. In a case of mistaken identity the three boats were involved in a action with a flotilla of proas belonging to the Rajah of Rhio.
  • Since DIDO's largest boat was under repair, the JOLLY BATCHELOR, which Brooke had had built in Sarawak and armed with a long, brass 6-pounder, was manned by a volunteer crew of mate, two midshipmen, six marines and twelve seamen. With the schooner EMILY, belonging to a Mr Whitehead of Singapore she was placed under the command of Lieut. HUNT and sent to cruise off Cape Datu. Some five days later, when the crews were overcome with fatigue, the two boats were attacked by two large war proas who mistook them for trading boats. Round shot, grape and canister from the JOLLY BATCHELOR's gun soon drove them off.
  • On 8 June an expedition rendezvoused at the Island of Burong for an attack on the stronghold of the pirates of Sarebas. Several chiefs sent their war fleets and they were controlled with considerable difficulty by Lieut. GUNNELL in DIDO's second gig.
  • The British contingent consisted of: DIDO's pinnace with Lieut. Wilmot HORTON, Mr PARTRIDGE, mate, Dr SIMPSON, Mr HALLOWES, midshipman, and 14 seamen and 5 marines; the first cutter with Mr D'AETH and Mr COLLINS, the boatswain, and the second cutter with Mr ELLIOT, master, and Mr JENKINS, midshipman. The JOLLY BATCHELOR was commanded by Lieut. TOTTENHAM with Mr COMBES, midshipman, and a number of civilians. About 80 officers and men altogether under the command of Lieut. HORTON. Capt. KEPPEL and Mr Brooke accompanied the expedition in the former's gig.
  • In the Sarebas river they had to cope with a bore before, on the 11th., they encountered a row of stakes and three forts. They broke through under fire and later the night was lit by the burning pirate capital of Paddi.
    In the evening Drs SIMPSON and TREACHER amputed the leg of the captain of the forecastle, a man named BATTERSON. (Dr SIMPSON died in Singapore on 6 August.) After the pirates surrendered the expedition moved on to Rembas which was given over to the native allies for plunder and sacking.
  • DIDO returned to Singapore on 28 June and two days later she sailed for China, working up against the monsoon. On 12 July she anchored in Hong Kong. In December she visited Manilla.
  • At the end of January 1844 she sailed from Hong Kong for Singapore with 2,000,000 dollars in silver, riding over a sunken junk filled with stones as she left the anchorage. She reached Singapore on 10 February and found orders for Penang. On 11 March she reached Calcutta and was towed back downstream by a small steamer on 13 April. She returned to Hong Kong on 26 May. On 18 July she was back in Singapore.
  • At the beginning of August another attack was launched against the pirates of Sarawak. This time they were joined by PHLEGETHON. DIDO's boats were: Pinnace, Lieut. C. F. WADE, Dr. R. BEITH, 13 seamen and 5 marines; first cutter, Mr E. H. D'AETH, mate, 8 seamen and 8 marines; second cutter, Mr Robert JENKINS, act.
    mate, 8 seamen and 2 marines; gig, Mr R. C. ALLEN, master, and 6 seamen.
    The JOLLY BATCHELOR was again pressed into service with Lieut. Edward TURNOUR, Mr C. JOHNSON, midshipman, 21 seamen and 8 marines. With PHLEGETHON's boats there were 13 officers, 108 seamen and 16 marines.
  • On Wednesday, 7 August, they attacked the forts at Patusen on the river Batang Lupar.
    Faulty priming tubes prevented PHLEGETHON's guns firing and the boats had to make an unsupported attack.
    The crews rushed up the shore and, entering the forts by the embrasures, drove the pirates out the back.
    John ELLIS of DIDO, captain of the main-top, was cut in two by a round shot while loading the bow-gun in the JOLLY BATCHELOR. Two other men were badly wounded. Sixty-four brass guns and many of iron were found in the fort, they were spiked and thrown in the river. The town was given over to plunder by the Malays and Dyaks who had accompanied the expedition.
  • On the 10th. the stronghold of Macota was destroyed, followed by the destruction of more pirate villages in the succeeding days. Lieut. WADE was killed on the 14th.
  • On 17 August the boats of the two warships, with the JOLLY BATCHELOR and a division of native boats, started up the Sarakan. The native boats were attacked by pirates on the 19th. and when the British arrived they found the boats jammed in the middle of the river with several thousand Dyaks engaged in a battle.
    Mr ALLEN, in the second gig, opened fire on the enemy with Congreve rockets and drove them back up the banks while Capt. KEPPEL picked off the leaders with the rifles loaded by his coxswain.
    George Stewart, a civilian volunteer who owned the brig ARIEL, was among the 29 killed on the British side.
    56 were wounded. The force returned to Sarawak on 4 September.
  • DIDO weighed from Singapore on 16 October 1844 and arrived at Spithead on 27 January. She paid off at Sheerness on 12 February, the men receiving about 4,000 pounds.
  • 1846 Sheerness.
  • 1848 J. MAXWELL, 05/4 , East Indies.
  • 1850 Sheerness. Hulk in 1860.


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